Did you guys listen to the eyewitness being interviewed by Fox and CNN (MSNBC are not covering the incident...)? I thought that though he was heavily-accented, he was fairly comfortable speaking in public. Most random eyewitnesses have that "cringe-factor" when interviewed, and either drone on or get too excited, making one uncomfortable listening to them.

Seems that Syed Jafry might have practise speaking in public, as according to these records, he ran as a Democrat for Congress District 40 in Michigan.

"I am a life long Civil Servent Mrried to Amna with two young adults, Wonderfull wife, Amna, MD who is specialized in taking care of children in critical emergency needs in ER. Most hard working and beautiful Daughter, Fizza, recently graduated from Tuft University, Boston, currently in first year residency program in Dentistry in Long Island Jewish Hospital in Long Island, NY. and a Son, a handsome hard working devil, Zan, a Medical student"

Handsome hard working devil. Heh.

Just a little colour commentary for you to have in mind, since this isn't media's cuppa.

What are the odds he is Islamoid? Pretty good, as his name indicates, though the media avoided that "delicate little topic". I guess letting the name and nationality speak to the identity and motive of the "suspect".

IMO, he tried to kill masses of people and failed. Just because his bomb failed to detonate doesn't mean murderous intent wasn't there...and the media always tries to minimize and belittle failed Islamoid attacks as "bungling, no real threat" type of incidents. Until the next one does cause mass butchery.

If someone shoots at me and misses, I wouldn't laugh at the time over the guy being a bad shot. If armed at the time(carry permit), I would shoot back and try and kill them. Or if the situation was different and an armed personal response not doable...the cops would be contacted and I would be pushing for a long, long jail sentence.

And why exactly do we have Christian charities and Jewish lawyers so convinced that mass immigration of Islamoids from troubled lands into the US is a wonderful thing? It isn't. We should stop it. No more mass settlement of hardcore Islamoids from dangerous barbaric countries here...not even as students or as tourists seeking to go illegal and stay.

But if an incompetent terrorist can still get a bomb on an airplane and nearly blow it up, that's rather alarming, and may suggest some competent terrorists were helping him.

I'm just getting up to speed on this story as I was blissfully unaware of the news of the world the past 36 or so hours. Looks like CNN is the only news channel that's live right now. I sure wish I wasn't ending Christmas by watching breaking news on a failed terrorist attack, but I guess that's the world we live in. :(

I'd like to know more about the hero passenger who jumped over other passengers to subdue the terrorist. We need to acknowledge men who do that...how many times has it happened now that passengers in a jet had to subdue a terrorist? More evidence of the truth of the old saying: "when seconds count...the police are only minutes away." And more evidence of the need of a prepared, armed citizenry that can act to protect itself without waiting for the government authorities to arrive.

I'd like to know more about the hero passenger who jumped over other passengers to subdue the terrorist.

Me too! That was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the takedown.

Given what that Syed Jafry person said, he was a 20-24 year old guy, so my first thought (that he was an Air Marhal) possibly is not correct. It's probably just a random American hero, and I hope that regular joes like him won't be called on to act quickly like that, in the coming months.

2 attacks by Muslims on US soil in the last two and a half months. Heckuva job, Obama.

I think it's easier when he's an University student in the UK. According to Rep. Peter King, his name was known but they didn't have enough on him, to warrant more vigilance...

Ricardo wrote:

Why is this so-called terrorist talking so much?

He does seem a little too chatty, doesn't he? Not only did he blurt out he's tied to Al-Qaeda, but that the explosive device hailed from Yemen. What makes it odder is that the news was divulged to the public, almost immediately.

There's more to this story than meets the eye. I think it's closer to what John of Ann Arbor is thinking.

Well, actually, David, it could be retribution for the strike in Yemen which killed that cleric (Alaubi?) who apparently counseled Major Hassan on killing US soliders and openly taunted the Americans for being unable to shut him up...

I'm one for keeping the word hero reserved for (1)People who show selfless bravery in defense of others or for a cause; (2)People who show extraordinary skill/and-or accomplishment in a profession or in a situation.

Captain Sulleberger was a hero not because he bravely saved his own ass, but for the unusal, extraordinary skill with which he did so - which was worthy of commemoration.Others, like the people on Flight 93 now enshrined in the Herohood Narrative, maybe not so.

Nowadays any person as victim or assister is automatically made into a hero. "The hero accident victim bravely struggled to stay alive...for his wife Edna and child Little Timmy. Hero passersby called 9/11 and hero cops and EMTs arrived, and an ambulance heroically made by workers in Detroit rushed him to the hospital on roads heroically plowed of snow hours before by noble sanitation workers. Once in the ER, hero doctors and hero nurses, trained by hero teachers, worked on him through guts and blood a non-hero would shrink from.

And the hero line workers, who run to downed power lines while other mortals run, deserve credit for having the hospital lighted, as do the hero firefighters whose job it is to rush to fires that others flee from...standing ready to do hero deeds if the hospital caught fire.And credit to the hero truck drivers who brave death everyday on the road to bring vital supplies, like the medical stuff that kept the hero-victim car accident guy alive for his nurturing heroic wife to help attend to..

And if anyone says anyone is not a hero, well, they are just insensitive shitty humans, because we are all heroes and we even have hero dogs!

At best, the passengers and crew that dealt with the Islamoid deserve praise for quick thinking and good actions...but perhaps not for simply trying to save their own asses..The Nigerian was stopped with no particular skill or selfless act of bravery.

2 attacks by Muslims on US soil in the last two and a half months. Heckuva job, Obama.

The case of the psycho psychiatrist shows that even long-term, formerly high-performing servicemen can go bad. To effectively eliminate the risk from such people, screening out the unfit must be ongoing. As CinC Obama can mandate such process improvements.

In today's incident at Detroit, a terrorist got destructive materials through Amsterdam airport security. Either Amsterdam airport security (and/or KLM/NW/Delta security) is inadequate or all airport security is inadequate. Obama can direct the TSA to upgrade general security procedures, and decertify AMS until they improve their screening.

"I'd like to know more about the hero passenger who jumped over other passengers to subdue the terrorist."

For my part, I'd rather know whether the statement "The suspect was being treated at a hospital for burns he suffered while igniting the device, the Transportation Security Administration said..." was (a) unintentional (but unsurprising) bad reporting, or (b) intentional bad reporting.

I suppose there is always (c) some guy jumped him on the plane and subdued him, but this caused no additional injuries of note, but you can be darned sure if I were the interventionist here the burns wouldn't be the most reportable injury.

Another thing, the "trigger" mechanism to activate the bomb was a syringe...

This shows that Al-Qaeda monitors what you can take on international flights, and have adapted their methods. Since you can't stop diabetics from boarding a plane, a syringe activator flies under the security radar.

Another thing, it seems Abdul (because the spelling of his surname seems to be uncertain at the moment) only went through security at Lagos, and not Schiphol. What's to prevent someone from bribing guards to look away or secrete something in for a terrorist in those types of places.

Richard "Kinky" Quest is on CNN live at the moment, at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. He says that in future, all US-bound passengers will be searched there. In the UK, the new rule is only one piece of hand luggage.

You know, I always found it unfair that I am allowed to take a handbag, but men are not. It doesn't count as an extra piece of hand luggage for us. Could we see more women in future, as air terrorists?

The case of the psycho psychiatrist shows that even long-term, formerly high-performing servicemen can go bad.

There is a chasm of difference betwee a mentally-stressed serviceman or veteran becoming a rapist, for example, and Major Hassan. You seem to concentrate on the outcome. To effectively deal with terrorists, you must look at the cause, then the reason, then the trigger.

Major Hassan is a devout, highly educated well-to-do Muslim-American, radicalised by American military involvement in Muslim-centric areas. Though the trigger is not known, exactly, it's certain that he was thinking about mowing down as many American soldiers as he could, for a VERY long time.

This is vastly different from an Iraq War vet who loses it, and goes out and holds up a 7/11.

Well, he could have done something like TWA 800, over the ocean during the voyage. A plane would never arrive, and it would be news for a week. Or, you can wait until the plane is over a populated area, say near the airport, and crash it there.

Then again, I happen to live under an approach to a major airport, so I think about these things.

I've flown there Schipol Airport a half dozen times in the past year. I'm hearing some talking heads talking about the security at the airport in Nigeria being a problem, but there is a security checkpoint right at every gate in Amsterdam.

When you go to board, you pass through a metal detector and your carry-on bags get x-rayed. You then wait in a walled off area before you get on the plane. Also, for flights bound for the US, they usually question each passenger getting on the plane.

It may be that the security on Christmas day was short-handed or lax, though that is very surprising.

Most random eyewitnesses have that "cringe-factor" when interviewed, and either drone on or get too excited, making one uncomfortable listening to them.

To anyone who is watching Fox News coverage at the moment, you'll see a mum (Diana Lyons) who turned in her own young daughter to the cops, for shoplifting. Hoo-ey. Watching her relate what happened is like watching teeth being pulled. She's hesitant, uses "Dick and Jane" vocabulary, has bad grammar, etc.

Poor thing, she must be nervous and not everyone can perform flawlessly on the spot.

Which really highlights the ease the NWA passengers have had, in describing the tense situation during the terrorist attack. To a man and woman, all those interviewed (even the heavily-accented ones) have been extremely well-spoken.

It may be that the security on Christmas day was short-handed or lax, though that is very surprising.

What I didn't remember is that Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber", claimed he had lost his passport and got a new one at the British embassy in Amsterdam, and frequently flew out from there to Pakistan. Just a detail.

Oh, you know what I learnt from news coverage that I didn't know previously? That KLM are now owned by Air France. Mighty KLM! One of the best flights I ever took was KLM's Schiphol to Colombo. Very cushy.

Michael Hasenstab said... "... he asked aides to ensure that all measures are in place to provide secure air travel."

It's comforting to know that the aides are all over this. After all, we elected the aides and expect them to show leadership in times of crisis or emergency.

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My eyes roll a bit at that.

1. What CRISIS!!! What EMERGENCY!!!??????????????There was an incident that was over before the Prez knew it had happened. Unlike Jimmy Carter or Dubya, this guy is at least smart enough to know he is an executive leader who has about 8 million people working for him and presumably they can handle the situation without Obama having to personally fly in, assess the plane, and interview passengers and TSA - or get on TV for another "special speech" and assure Americans that "They are perfectly safe, thanks to the Heroes...so shop, travel, do something nice for a neighbor."

2. Bush got the same thing from idiots on the Left. When a tornado hit Indiana and killed 18, critics were screaming that Bush "failed" to personally come and help..Just like he failed to direct firefighters in California wildfires, be out bailing sewage after Katrina, or personally audit Bernie Madoff books and failed to visit poor dying little Hector Gonzalez in a Las Vegas hospital.

3. I elected a President to be an overall leader and not get bogged down in chickenshit about a failed little Islamoid in a failed little plane fiasco.Nixon, HW Bush, Reagan, and Clinton understood this - keep at the big things -show a little empathy now and then (yes, Nixon needed to do more fake empathy as Reagan and Clinton did well). But don't let the media win in their demand that you personally handle as President every big news story they fancy or little incidents like with Islamoid "evildoers" they hype to the Max.

You ought not to become complacent because of the ineptitude demonstrated here. There's always the possibility of a more clever terrorist of a less obvious persuasion blowing up many of us-- just like right-winger Tim McVeigh did! We need to make sure Obama (as CINC) has the flexibility to deal with terrorist threats as he needs to.

As for limiting Muslim immigration like Cedarford says, don't you realize that we demonstrate the robustness of our country and its values to the world by the way we integrate Muslims now? They are able to succeed here in a way that they can't in other Western countries. Suggesting that be cut off is nothing but stupid reactionism.

It may turn out to be a very sophisticated bomb with liquid and powdered components triggered with a syringe.

This is what people should be concentrating on, Drill Sgt.

Both sides are all too glib about placing blame politically for this breakdown in security (including my side). I went to Kos Kidz just now, and they're making jokes about Bush (as ever), ANYTHING, rather than admit that the WOT is alive and well.

- Who built the bomb?- Who financed the plot?- How long has this been planned?- Was it connected to Richard Reid's failed shoe bomb attempt? (Knowing that Al-Qaeda like to "revisit" failed terrorist attacks, to finish the job; they also choose significant dates and anniversaries).

Someone mentioned, I think, that the suspect (because, remember, he is just a suspect) was on his way to a religious conference in Detroit. Can I guess? Should I guess? Would it be a hate crime to guess correctly?